Revenge
by Lena7623
Summary: Post Avengers. Phoenix has been left behind, alone again, but she refuses to let Loki stay away from her for long. Also, she plots revenge against those who took them away. Highly suggested that you read 'Second in Command' first. Loki/OC. Rated M for violence and sexual situations.
1. Chapter 1 Formula 18

(Summary: Post Avengers. Phoenix has been left behind, alone again, but she refuses to let Loki stay away from her for long. Also, she plots revenge against those who took them away. Highly suggested that you read 'Second in Command' first. Loki/OC. Rated M for violence and sexual situations.)

Chapter One: Formula 18

Loki had only taught Phoenix very little magic; so, suffice it to say, she kind of sucked at it. The particular spell that he seemed to intend for her to use was a teleportation spell, powerful enough for her to pull someone from another world. The other books he had sent her were different. They were the myths and legends of Asgard. At first, she hadn't understood why he had sent them, but, as she read them, she had an idea. Instead of thinking on the repercussions for too long, she simply made a note of them and would ask him about them later. She had no time or patience to think of anything right now but getting her King back.

The books were actually his personal books. There were notes scrawled in the ledgers in what she had learned was his handwriting. They were mostly ideas for what the spells could be used for. Most of them were pranks, mainly on Thor, that made her smirk. There was even a transmutation one that might turn his hammer into a fluffy pink sheep, according to the notes.

Even though she lacked experience, she felt that, with the books and the notes, she could do this. She just didn't think it would take so many tries.

The first time she tried it, she blew a hole in her roof. That had taken a few days to repair, but even she realized that it was somewhat amusing.

The second time had been more successful, but she had only pulled in a cat. An earth cat, or Midgardian cat, as this planet was referred to in Loki's books. It was a black cat with white feet and, despite her frustration with it not being Loki, she was lonely and adopted it anyway. She named it Socks. At least now, she had someone to talk to and rant at, although the cat usually stared at her like she was insane when she ranted. Maybe she was going insane. All these failures were making her go insane.

The fifteenth time she tried, she ended up with something that was apparently called a bilchsteim. Something large, scaly, and with antlers that made a mess of her living room and scared Socks enough to make him run under her bed. The fact that it scared Sock was likely the reason that she shot it in the face. It took some research, but she learned that it was some animal that lived on Asgard, so she took heart that at least she was closer to her goal.

On her eighteenth time, she added something to the spell that would supposedly make it more powerful. She assumed that she wasn't quite succeeding because Loki likely had some sort of magical guard over him. It would be stupid of them not to do so, especially after he had sent her resources. However, another of the books she had on black magic said that blood could power a spell, and would be able to make up for lack of experience.

She had cut open a vein to get enough blood, letting it flow into a bowl so that she could use it to draw with. When she had enough, she tied a tourniquet on her arm to try to stop the flow. Dipping her fingers into the bowl, she started to draw on the floor. She normally drew the siegel in charcoal that Loki was supposed to appear in, but supposedly, the blood would make the spell more powerful.

Even as her head started to spin from the blood loss, she repeated the words out of the book, forcing herself to stay sitting up on her knees even though she kind of wanted to keel over. She had bled a little too much for her own good. She'd be alright eventually, and that was what helped her stay up. The other thing that helped her stay up was the hope that THIS time, Loki would appear.

When the siegel started to glow, this time red as it was glowing from the blood, she at least realized she had done it right enough to summon _something_. She hoped that it wasn't another bilchsteim, as she'd likely get her ass kicked by it this time, considering her weakness right now.

The blast from the siegel knocked her over, smoke filling the room and causing her to cough. As the smoke started to clear, she could see a familiar shape in it standing before her. Thank the gods.

Sputtering, she pushed herself up to her feet. "Is it you this time?" she asked, her voice hopeful.

He didn't answer, and, when the smoke cleared better, she could see why: he still had that damn muzzle on his face! Had they really left it on him for a month? She supposed they took it off long enough for him to eat, but otherwise?

She moved her hands behind his head, hoping to find some sort of clasp. His hands were  
chained in front of him, so if there was one, he couldn't reach it himself. There might also be a spell on it to keep him from taking it off himself. When her fingers reached the clasp, she fiddled with it for a second before unsnapping it, letting it drop to the floor before angrily crushing it beneath her feet.

He gasped as if that were the first free breath he had taken in a while. He said a few words, and the chains fell off his wrist, and she kicked them and what remained of the muzzle away. His arms were on hers, and she realized that, if he wasn't holding her now, she'd likely crumble at his feet. She may have used a *touch* too much blood.

He looked at the floor. "Did you use blood?" he asked.

She nodded. "It's the eighteenth try. I had to do something different," she told him, picking her head up and looking back up at him. She could see the outline of the muzzle and where it had cut into his face. It would be healed soon, she was sure, but that did nothing to quell the anger in her at seeing him harmed.

"Only eighteen tries? I'm impressed," he remarked with a slight smirk.

"You...you didn't see the first seventeen," she joked, leaning her head against his chest. She felt his arms wrap around her, holding her, and she felt complete for the first time the long time that he had been gone.

"How long have I been gone?" he asked her, arms tightening around her as she dug her nails lightly into his jacket. He was actually still wearing the black leather that she had last seen him in.

"A month. A long _tortuous_ month," she told him, biting back a sob of joy at having him back with her. "How did...how did they treat you?" she asked, trying to force the black spots at the edges of her vision to go away.

"They put the muzzle back on me when they realized some of my old books had disappeared from the library," he told her. "I think they thought I had them sent to my room, though. Obviously they didn't find anything."

"What else did they do?" she asked, shutting her eyes for a moment.

She felt him stiffen. "Another time," he said. She felt him brush a sweat soaked piece of hair from her face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, even as she felt her legs go completely limp. He caught her, moving one of his arms underneath her knees and lifting her up, cradling her to his chest. By the time that she was even thinking to protest, he had found her bedroom, stretching her out on the bed.

"Not quite the homecoming I pictured," she remarked, opening her eyes up lazily at him, watching him as he lifted up her arm, removing the tourniquet that she had fastened around it.

"You bled too much," he told her, running his thumb up beside the cut. She grumbled when she felt it start to itch, reaching up to scratch at it absently, but Loki reached over and grabbed her hand to stop her. When he let both of her hands go she realized why. He had healed it.

"I didn't know you could do that," she said to him, grinning. She still felt light headed, but it wasn't as bad as before.

He grinned back at her. "Now I have the time to show you all that I can do," he said, pulling her back up quickly enough to make her dizzy again and smashing his lips against hers. He was filthy from likely being left in a cell for a month and she was covered with sweat and blood, but right now, she couldn't even begin to bring herself to care about such trivial things. She circled an arm around the back of his neck, pulling him even closer, pawing at his clothing and trying to figure out a way to get it off and away. She feels one of his hands move away from her and make an impatient, hurried motion and suddenly they're both deliciously and wonderfully naked, and she's certain that her skin is going to catch fire at any moment.

His mouth broke away from hers, but it didn't go far, staying on her skin and moving down toward her neck, and the mixture of his cold touch and her entirely too heated body is alone enough to drive her mad, much less what he's actually doing to her. His lips were sucking and his teeth were biting her neck and she was already moaning his name over and over again.

With a growl, she rolled them over, as she hated to sit in passivity for too long, pinning him down to the bed as she vied for dominance. She dipped her head down and dragged her tongue across his pulse point on his neck, grinning when she heard a stilted moan come from him, causing the skin to vibrate under her lips.

She moved quickly, her mouth drifting down lower, flicking her tongue over his nipple, her hand moving up to work the other nipple, grinning as she felt him start to move and squirm underneath her attentions. Her sharp teeth grazed him lightly, and she couldn't stop a chuckle escaping from her lips when she heard him hiss and then moan.

Before she realized what was happening, he was rolling them back over, pushing her arms above her head and her wrists together and, before she can think, she feels something snaking around her wrists, looking up just a touch too late to stop what looks like a green rope snake around her wrists. Giving a tug quickly reveals that they're strong, and a few more pulls that are experimental showed her she likely wasn't getting out of them herself.

She looked up at him and he grinned, and all she can do is what as he bent down and kissed her lips again. She arched up against him, her body arching for more than just kisses. She was sure that he knew that, as now his fingers were frustratingly light as they brushed down her side and rested on the curve of her hip.

She whined, tugging at her restraints again, and then growling in frustration when her wrists still didn't move. He laughed, fingers digging into her skin as he lifted her hips up, his cock now pressed just outside of her entrance. When she tried to move her hips up to take more of him inside of her, he moved back, keeping himself at bay from her with a smirk. "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?" she asked with an impatient groan.

He laughed, pushing himself fully inside of her, shutting his eyes in obvious enjoyment. "Just trying to savor the moment, you impatient creature," he said, slowly dragging his cock out of her before slamming it back inside.

She let out a ragged moan as she moved her hips up to meet his. "You can call me whatever you want as long as you don't stop doing that," she panted, cool blue eyes looking up to meet his when they opened up at her again.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied, already starting to move faster inside of her. Since her wrists were tied down, she could do little but writhe underneath him and moan as he fucked her. Her breath started to hitch and come out in quick gasps as she felt her body tense and tighten up.

She could see that he was getting close as well, his hips losing that insanity driven rhythm and now seemingly slamming into her as hard and fast as he could, which was what she needed now. She wrapped her legs around his waist to pull him in just a little bit deeper and that was enough to drive her over the edge, screaming his name as she climaxed.

She was barely aware of his fingers digging into her skin again, now hard enough to bruise, as he exploded inside of her, groaning out her name, the name he had given her, causing her to smile.

When he was finished, his body went limp, falling on top of her. At the same time, she felt her wrists come free, and she brought down her arms, stretching out her arms for a moment before wrapping them around his back. She had so much that she wanted to talk about, stuff she knew she'd wanted to ask and learn quickly, but right now all she wanted to do was sleep and have him hold her in his arms.

(Author's Note: I warned that Loki would be making a comeback in the first chapter! Hello again! *waves* The chapter title is a stupid joke on my part. The cleaner Formula 409's name is based on the fact that it took 409 attempts to make it. It took Phoenix 18 times to get Loki back.

A witty creature, I am not. *snorts* I am easily amused, though.)


	2. Chapter 2 I Want to Rain on Their Parade

Chapter Two: I Want to Rain on Their Parade

When her eyes fluttered open the next morning, the first thing that Phoenix noticed was the wonderfully cool body laying next to hers, breathing softly. She sighed happily as she stretched, feeling Loki's arm tightened around her waist as she moved.

The next thing that she noticed was Socks when he jumped on the bed and batted a paw at her nose. Her eyes flickered over to the clock, and she realized that she had slept later than normal. Socks was likely quite the hungry cat right now. "You are a nuisance," she grumbled to Socks with a grin, trying to move to get out of bed. However, Loki's arm tightened around her again, not ready to let her go just yet.

"Looks like you lose, cat," she told Socks, rolling away from him, meeting a pair of piercing green eyes. "How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to watch him vie for your attention," Loki said with a grin. "How long have you had him?"

"About a week and a half," she admitted. "Socks came from attempt number two to work that spell to get you."

"You got him instead of me?" She could hear in Loki's voice that he was trying not to laugh at her.

"Better than the first attempt. That just blew a hole in my roof," she told him. "It's not fun to patch a roof on your own." She had no way to explain the perfectly shaped hole in her roof, so she didn't bother with a contractor.

She leaned her head back, looking up at the wall behind her toward the mounted horns she had. "Those came from attempt fifteen," she said, pointing up at them.

He looked up, arching an eyebrow. "A bilchsteim? And your home is still standing?"

"Barely," she said with a snort. "I really only got mad when it scared Socks." She looked over at the impatient looking cat. "Him. His name is Socks." Not a creative name, but the cat didn't seem to hate it. It was as good a name as any.

He chuckled. "Protecting the honor of your cat. Interesting..."

"If I had to protect the cat's 'honor' I'd have castrated that thing first," she remarked with a laugh of her own, finally disentangling herself from him enough to sit up. She was starting to remember how sweaty she had been the night before, which was now making her itch and crave a shower. "I was going to take a shower, but you're welcome to it first if you'd like." She looked toward the door in her bedroom that led to the adjoining bathroom.

He nodded, rolling over and pushing himself out of the bed. It was then that she could take a good, non-frenzied look at his body, and she noticed the marks all over his back, some faded, but some still looking rather fresh lash marks. She narrowed her eyes, making a mental note to ask about them, but wanting to let him have his shower first. She didn't like people hurting what was hers, but she supposed that could be just part of the upcoming fun.

She had no intention of hiding away here with Loki for the rest of existence. She doubted he would be content with such an existence, either. She personally planned to rain down torment on all of those Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. along with it. Of course, she'd have to get back to America really to do anything, and while she still didn't trust herself to do any sort of teleportation spell (she wouldn't want to wind up on a different world by accident...or at the bottom of the ocean), at least she shouldn't have to travel by foot now.

She got out of bed and slid on a robe, moving Socks off her bed and heading into the kitchen so that she could feed the big ball of fur. "I swear you must eat more than a normal cat," she muttered as she poured the food into his bowl. "Nothing that small should eat so much." After he was fed and seemingly happy, she headed back to the bedroom.

She came in just as Loki was coming out of the bathroom, towel wrapped loosely around his waist. "Feel any better?" she asked. The grime that had been on him from his captivity was gone.

"I've felt better since I've arrived here," he said. "Where is here, by the way?"

"Argentina, South America," she told him, walking over and looking up at him. "I figured I should get as far away as I could without needing to travel by plane."

"You walked all the way here?" he asked, sounding amazed.

"Not all the way," she said, shaking her head. "Walked, hitchhiked, stole a few cars and drove them until they ran out of gas," she listed, turning to look out her window at the mountainous area. If she didn't have so much rage burning in her, this might be a good place to stay. She couldn't rest, though. Not yet.

She had so many things to ask him, but couldn't stop the now most pertinent thing in her mind from popping out. "What did they do to your back?" she asked him.

Even though she wasn't looking at him at the moment, she could feel him tense. "Punishment," he said to her. "I'm royalty, so they couldn't put me to death, but that didn't mean that my crimes would go _unpunished_." She could sense the bitterness in that word. She actually had to bite back a shudder. She once again hated herself for not just grabbing him and going back in New York. He had been right when he said that her progress would have been slower, but there still had to of been some way for them to get away together and for him to not have to of suffered that sort of degradation.

She finally did look back at him, seeing the dark and faraway look on his face. "And they'll pay for what they did to you," she promised, reaching out for him and grazing her fingers over his arm, trying to reassure him. Now that she had him back, she was finding hard to keep her hands off him. "You'll be back in your rightful place soon enough."

"_We'll_ be back in our rightful place," he corrected. He bent down, pressing a tantalizingly brief kiss to her lips. If it weren't for the fact that she desperately still needed a shower, she'd demand more.

Pulling away, she let her fingers drag across his skin as she headed into the bathroom. She wanted to scrub off the grim and leftover blood from the night before, dying to feel clean. She turned the shower head on, not needing much in the way of warm water as she stepped inside.

She let her mind wander as she washed. Getting Loki back was her only focus for so long that she hadn't really thought of the second step. She was driven nearly to the point of insanity in her efforts to regain him. Then again, she got results quicker than she expected, or possibly should have. She could only hope that Loki has some idea of what they should do as well. She knew that she wanted to go back and get revenge, but exactly _what_ she wanted to do is a mystery.

When she's done, she stepped out of the shower, heading out into the bedroom. It's empty, although she could hear movement in the little home. After getting dressed (and looking around curiously for her clothes from last night and finding none), she walked into the kitchen to find Loki, now dressed in a simple green shirt and loose hanging black slacks, bent over and looking in her fridge. Socks was sitting on the counter and seemingly looking in the fridge with him, and it's just an odd enough sight that she laughed.

He turned around to look at her and smirked. "Wasn't aware that you were done," he said. She walked over, picking up Socks and setting him on the floor where he belonged, despite his yowling in protest.

"I can make something, if you'd like," she said, wiping her hands on her shorts and brushing past him, nudging him to the side with her hips and starting to pull things out of the fridge, intending on making them something warm and sweet and kind of decadent.

Phoenix isn't too much of a cook, but she knew how to make breakfast food taste good. Soon she's putting a plate of pancakes in front of him, and almost cracked up when he looked at them as if he didn't know what to do with them. "They're not an alien species, they're pancakes," she chided him. She pushed a bottle of syrup in front of him. "You pour the syrup on them and eat them. Now stop poking at them and eat up!"

As she turned to make her own, she can't really believe that's she's having pancakes in a kitchen with a Norse god. Despite everything, this was weird, even for her life. Weird and oddly domestic in a way that she's not entirely sure that she knew how to handle.

When she's done, she turned back around to find that he seems to have deemed them satisfactory, as he did what she told him, pouring the syrup on them and slowly digging into them, still managing to eat them with some sort of regality, even though most people would have been covered with syrup at this point.

"Glad to see that you like them," she commented as she sat down across from him. "I might have gotten upset if you didn't like my cooking."

She was teasing, and the smirk on his face as he ate showed that he knew that, but that didn't detract from the pleasure of seeing him eat her food just the same.

Eventually she finished eating her pancakes, although she ended up dribbling a little bit of the syrup on her own shirt. "How on earth do you stay so clean eating this stuff?" she asked him.

"Manners," he said, his voice deadpan even as a slight grin played on his lips.

"Yeah yeah, you're the regal god and I'm the barbarian animal," she agreed with a laugh, reaching over to grab his plate to toss in the sink. Before she can grab it, though, he took a hold of her wrist, yanking her over the table toward him and his lips met hers and there's that underlying taste of him underneath the sweetness of the food he just ate, and it's a taste that she just can't get enough of.

Even as they kiss, though, she heard him saying, "Can't get too carried away, now. We've got things to plan for."

"Says the man who started this," she said against his lips, pulling herself up on the table without breaking away from his lips so that she can get closer and just feel him against her. She slid over the table, knocking dishes out of the way, moving over and sliding down to sit in his lap, content just to keep kissing him for right now.

Even though she wants more, she knew that he was right. She settled for wrapping her arms around his neck, letting out a content purr as she rested her head on his shoulder. "So, what sort of plans did you have, Chief?" she asked him. "Anything I came up with involved burning things and that just seemed too simple."

"And far too quick," he replied, shutting her eyes as she felt his fingers running through her hair. "We'll need to bring full ruination down upon them. To kill too quickly would give them far too easy of a release." She can't resist smiling at that. She didn't want their pain to end too soon, either.


	3. Chapter 3 A Good Day

Chapter Three: A Good Day   
(Author's Note: Fair warning, I am going to attempt some different points of view in this story, along with Phoenix's. I pray that I don't suck and get OC with any of the other characters. Parts of this chapter are going to be the first attempt. Besides, The Avengers have to be _alerted_ that someone literally stole away Loki in the dead of night. *cackles madly*)

"Anthony Stark, wake up."

Tony Stark grumbled in his sleep, rolling over on the bed. This was not what he needed to deal with right now. Wait...who around here actually called him Anthony?

Before he realized what was happening, he felt himself suddenly go vertical and slide out of his bed to the floor. With a yelp, he looked up from his crumpled heap to see the God of Thunder himself holding his bed up sideways, letting it drop back with a loud thud, causing the floor to shudder.

"Thor, there's this invention called 'the telephone.' I know some of our technology tends to escape you, but we use it to talk to people instead of dropping by and dumping them out of bed!" Tony snapped at him, pushing himself up off the floor and sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"We do not have time for such pleasantries, Anthony," Thor told him. "Loki is gone."

That helped him to wake up a lot quicker. "I thought you guys had a handle on this! You know, that's why S.H.I.E.L.D. let you take him away to your magical place in the sky." Ugh, what time was it? Tony groaned as he looked over at his clock. It was past two in the afternoon, and he needed to wash the taste of alcohol out of his mouth. He had been up way too late the night before. "That was kind of the deal for not executing your brother right here, was that he wouldn't be dropping back in on us." They also didn't want an interplanetary incident, as Thor had explained something about the offense for killing a citizen of Asgard. It was long and convoluted in his way speaking like a high school production of Shakespeare, but bad things had been involved.

"Loki did not escape on his own," Thor explained, sitting on the bed next to Tony, the bed screaming under his bulk. "Books disappeared from the royal library about two weeks ago, and we thought that Loki may have hidden them away in his room, so the muzzle was placed back onto him. Last night he disappeared from his cell."

"Then what makes you think that he's here?" Tony asked. "He could be anywhere. He could have been taken by whomever it was that he was working for before. He could be getting the punishment that you guys wouldn't dish out."

Thor shook his head. "I do not think so. There's something else. Something that my father told me about his...about the Phoenix."

Tony's face darkened. The one person that Tony may dislike even MORE than Loki was her. Sure, he had led an assault on the Earth and thrown him through his own window, but she had burned some VERY expensive and irreplaceable paintings. That was just _rude_. "Yeah, what about her? She's a bad full of crazy and she escaped us last time..." Then it clicked. "SHIT. She managed to get him, didn't she?"

Phoenix, formerly known as Agent Anna Delallo, who had apparently pulled a fast one over on S.H.I.E.L.D., as she had managed to fake her entire identity without being caught by the spy organization. It was kind of an embarrassment, and, if she wasn't the enemy, Tony would want to hire her to work for him, as he couldn't figure out how she had done that. Despite the spies looking for her, and Fury himself wanting her head on a silver platter, she hadn't turned up.

"My father suspects as much," Thor said. "There is much that we did not know about her until recently. Father helped to explain who she really is."

"That so?" Despite his bewilderment at being woken up and still pretty hung over, Tony was definitely listening. "Mind explaining?"

As Thor talked more, Tony's eyes went wide. "OK, was not expecting that..."

When Loki explained the plan to her, it was both hilarious and irritatingly _slow_ for her. Of course, Phoenix wanted to go in guns blazing (metaphorically, anyway), tearing people apart and making them suffer tremendously.

Loki's plan, or the beginning of it anyway, fell somewhere between pranks and psychological warfare. He explained to her that it would give them time to gather their full strength, as he was not fully well from his time in captivity, and it would give him time to train _her_ as well.

She suspected that he wanted to train her to use the magic within her, but she had no idea just what he seemed to think that she was capable of. Mainly because whenever she tried something, things just caught on fire.

"What am I doing wrong?" she shrieked, watching as the tree in front of her burned. She had been supposed to levitate a book. It had caught fire, though, then she screamed something obscene, and then the book flew into a tree, catching it on fire.

"Right now? Everything." Loki the teacher was far more irritating than Loki the lover was. If she thought she might get away with it, she'd light _him_ on fire every time he gave her one of those stern 'teacher' looks that she would swear had to be patented and taught.

The three of them (Socks included) were now in upstate New York, preparing for the beginning of their assault. For some reason, he was insisting that she learn some control over this aspect of herself when, for the most part, she'd be happy for this to be a slow taken pastime rather than whatever Loki seemed to have in mind.

"You are not helping," she grumbled, sitting on the ground as the fire started to burn out. "Being vague is not going to help me learn this."

"I'm not being vague. You are literally doing _everything_ wrong when you do that," Loki said, sitting down next to her. "I told you to concentrate on the book, not glare at it. I told you to keep your temper under control and you didn't. I specifically told you not to swear at it and you did. That pretty much covers the 'everything' that I mentioned."

"I'm not sure that I can keep my temper under control when we work on this," she admitted with a sigh, lying back in the grass to stare up at the sky. "When things don't go right, I get mad, and then fire appears."

"You didn't catch Socks on fire," Loki remarked, his voice neutral despite the smirk on his face.

"Socks is now pink with green feet," she told him with a roll of her eyes.

"And he's going to stay that way until you can control yourself enough to change him back," Loki pointed out to her.

She groaned. "You SUCK sometimes, you know that?" She knew that she sounded like a human teenager when she said things like that, but this was beyond frustrating for her. Her poor cat looked like a melon!

"You sound like a petulant child when you talk like that."

She arched an eyebrow and peered up at him. "If you picked that out of my brain I'm going to poke out one of your eyes in your sleep."

When he didn't answer her, she grinned just before pouncing and tackling him, pinning him to the ground. "You have NO idea how much I hate it when you do that." He didn't seem to pick things from her head too often. She wasn't even terribly sure how he did it.

"Oh I do," he retorted, and, before she knew what hit her, he managed to flip her over, with him being the one on top and holding her down. She really wasn't used to dealing with someone so strong. "Maybe I do it to get a rise out of you."

She smiled when she felt him press harder against her. "I believe the only one of us 'getting a rise' in this situation is you, Loki," she purred. She arched her hips up against his, now just egging on the situation.

She watched, still smiling, as his eyes fluttered shut for a moment as she moved. "This was supposed to be another lesson," he said, as if trying to get a hold of the situation.

"Says the man who's pinning _me_ down," she said, looking up at him innocently, "and rising to the occasion." Before he could argue with her about getting back to the matter at hand, she arched up just enough, despite him having her pinned down, to bring her lips to his. It really was hard for her to keep her mind on anything important whenever he was touching her in any way.

She felt his fingers dig into her skin as he kissed her back, hard enough to leave bruises but she didn't have it in her to care. Digits slid down her arms finally, and for a second she thought his hands might slide back up her shirt, but then he vanished off the top of her, reappearing standing beside her prone form, then squatting down beside her. "You are too easily distracted, my dear," he told her.

"And you are an ass," she said, sitting up enough to reach out and hit him, but he disappeared again.

"If you had enough patience, I could teach you how to do this," she heard him whisper in her ear, but, when she turned to grab him, her arms went flying through the air.

"Right now the only thing I have the patience for is kicking your ass," she called out, quickly pushing herself off the ground. Forcing herself to relax, as she knew that she'd never figure out where he was otherwise, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Hearing a footstep near her, she lashed out, lightening fast, coming into contact with a form that, thankfully, turned into Loki when she tripped him and made him fall on his back, putting her foot on his chest. "And this land I claim for mine own," she said, shrieking when he pulled on her foot and made her fall, managing to roll just enough to not land on top of him.

"How did you find me?" he asked as she made herself comfortable, curling into his side and laying an arm across his waist.

"You walk like an elephant," she teased. When he reached over and lightly bit her shoulder, she just laughed. "I used to hunt, before there were nice things around here like grocery stores, before there were quick ways to kill like with guns. I'm quite adept at finding what I want, even when I can't see them."

"And what you want is me," he said, almost sounding...unsure of that.

She sat up enough so that she could look him in the eyes. "To sound like that petulant child again, 'duh,'" she teased, before forcing herself to get serious. She didn't like that tone in his voice. "You're the first person I've ever met that's made me feel...to make me feel like I'm not alone." She didn't even know how to put it. Ever since she had first saw him in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s underground lair, something had clicked, although she hadn't known what at the time it was. She just knew that she wanted to be wherever he was, which was why she had pretty much thrown herself at his feet. She STILL didn't quite understand why everything in her screamed that he belonged to her and her to him. She didn't have it in her to argue or question the feeling, either.

She moved forward and brushed her lips against his, lightly this time, just feeling the need to give and get affection. There was something about himself that he hadn't told her yet. Something that he was holding back that bothered him. She wondered when he would talk about it.

Later, after Loki had fallen asleep in bed, she went out and caught her horribly colored cat. "Sit with me and see if I can do this without turning you polka dotted," she said to him, running her fingers slowly over his fur. What she had been practicing before hadn't even been to do with Socks. He had just knocked something over and caught her attention at the wrong time and, one glare later, he was pink and green.

She rubbed his fur and made him look up at her, muttering under her breath as, for once, she _concentrated _and didn't just glare at what she wanted to work. Socks shimmered for moment before his fur stood on end, darkening until it was the black again, his feet lightening up to white.

The cat jumped off her lap and bounded off, seemingly irritated at being the focus of magic again, even if this time it was to correct her earlier mistake. "So much for gratitude," she grumbled, relaxing back into the sofa as he ran away. "See if I fix it the next time I change you to some neon colors."

When she felt chilled fingers brush against the back of her neck, she didn't turn around but she did smile. "I thought that you were asleep."

"It's hard for me to sleep for long most of the time." That did make her turn around and face him, looking at the dark circles under his eyes, standing out all the more because of his pale skin. "There's something that we need to discuss.

The other thing that had always been at the back of her mind. One of the other books he had sent her.

She shook her head, moving up and brushing her fingers over her bare chest. He only wore a pair of silk black pants right now, and his hair, usually slicked back, was falling into his face as he looked down at her. "We'll talk tomorrow." This had been a good day. She'd even managed to get socks back to normal. She didn't want it to get heavy just yet.

When he tried to protest, she pressed a finger to his lips, silencing him. "Tomorrow," she admonished. She suspected that he knew even more than that book of myths hinted at, and she just wasn't sure if she wanted to hear it yet, or ever. When he finally nodded, she smiled. She wanted today to stay a good day.


	4. Chapter 4 I'm a Thing

Chapter Four: I'm A Thing

Beyond sleeping fitfully for a few hours, Phoenix couldn't rest. She had woken up as soon as sunlight filtered from her window and into the house, and she ended up throwing on some jeans and a black tank top before heading into the living room, putting down food for Socks and then sitting on the sofa, grabbing the book that Loki had sent to her before. It was the one about myths and legends, the one that, at the back of her mind, had been bothering her since she first read it.

It was one thing that she couldn't help but focus on. Even if certain things about it didn't make sense, other parts did. It made sense why she was always warm. Why, now that the magic was released in her, that things burned when she got angry. There was one big problem with the theory of her being...of this particular myth pertaining to her.

For one, she didn't own a sword that could bring fire, although she supposed she could find a way to put that together.

Secondly, she wasn't male. That she was DAMN sure of, but myths that are old enough could get details wrong?

"How long have you been awake?" Loki's voice filtered in from behind her, but, for once, she didn't acknowledge him. She was sitting cross legged on the floor, book in her lap.

"I don't like the idea of being sweated out of someone's arm pits," she grumbled. It was something stupid to focus on. "I'm actually glad I seem to have blocked that out." She didn't remember being sweated out of an armpit.

She felt him walk closer, still not turning to him. He squatted down behind her, looking over her shoulder and looking at the entry she had the book open to _Surtur._ "I really did think that was a myth," she heard him say.

"I'm not a man," she said, still not looking up at him.

"Translations don't always get gender right," he told her.

"I wasn't wrong about wanting to burn the world down," she said, not realizing that, as her fingers dug harder into the pages, her fingers were actually starting to burn into the paper. No flames as of yet, though.

"My..._Odin_," she heard him correct himself, but barely realized it, "he talked to me while I was locked away. He told me I was meddling with a force that I couldn't possibly understand by being with you." She felt his hands on hers, forcing her to drop the book, likely before she lit the damn thing on fire. "He had you removed long ago, to try and prevent Ragnarok from happening."

Odin likely could have even changed the translations to make it harder to find her, or for her to find out about herself. She wouldn't put it past him at this point. She wasn't sure she would put anything past anyone at this point.

"I'm a...a _thing_," she said with a snarl. "I'm a monster." She had once said that she wouldn't mind watching the world burn, but it was one thing to say that and another to realize that you were going to be the one who was going to **burn** it.

Before she realized what was happening, she felt Loki's strong hands on her arms and felt herself being pulled up. Hard green eyes met her own. "You are anything but a monster," he told her. "You're the first person who made me feel like *I* wasn't a monster, and I'm not going to let you think that about yourself."

She's almost dazed as she looks at him. Having him confirm what she suspected sent her into a little bit of a shock. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm not really a child of Odin, not biologically. He found me in the temple of Jotunheim, after defeating Laufey in battle. He adopted me with some thought that I may bring peace between the realms someday." He looked away and shuddered when he said that. "I found out that I am a member of a race that Thor used to tell me were hiding under my bed at night, ready to come and get me if I fell asleep!"

She felt him shake her, as if trying to snap her out of her stupor. "I am a Frost Giant. I am the thing that the Aesir children are taught to be afraid of. You were the first to make me feel like I am simply Loki, not some horrid thing, and I won't have you thinking the same."

She knew that he could be eloquent, but damn that was good, even for him. She gave him a slight smile before laying her head on his chest, simply relishing in his presence and feeling slightly less monstrous than when all of this had finally sunk in.

She stayed silent for a long moment before asking, "Why am I so short?"

"What?" He reached and tilted her head up towards his.

"I'm short." She was only about five feet, four inches tall. Loki towered over her. "If Surtur...if _I'm_ supposed to be a fire giant, why am I so short?" She was a little short even by human standards, much less anything resembling a giant.

"Maybe you're a runt like me," Loki remarked with a smirk.

Despite everything she had been fully informed of today, she started to laugh. "How fucking tall are they that YOU'RE considered a runt?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "It does not matter," he told her. "Now come on. I think it's time that we pay our friends in New York a little visit, don't you?"

So, they were finally going to do something? She beamed up at him. "I admit I'm curious to see what exactly you mean by pranks. I assume that you don't mean anything like putting sneezing powder in someone's food."

He shook his head. "That is just boring," he told her. "And a bored God of Mischief is quite the dangerous God of Mischief."

"Because the two of us aren't dangerous as it is?" she asked him with a giggle. "Well, I guess we should head back to New York City before you get too bored." She paused for a moment before saying, "Please tell me that pranks involve fire. Burning things seems to be the only thing I'm consistently good at."

"You still need to expand your horizons," he pointed out, almost sounding stern before grinning again, "but yes they can!"

OoOoOoOoOO

"Loki would find someone to partner up with that could possibly make things worse than he already was."

Tony rubbed his eyes as he tried not to laugh. After Thor had woke him up and told him what was really going on, he had actually made the effort to call everyone together. If Loki was missing, and Phoenix was behind it, and she was actually the harbinger of Armageddon or whatever it was that Thor called it, and things were just BAD with a capital fuck you.

"I knew that she was crazy," Clint continued, "but _damn_."

"Does she even know what she really is?" Natasha asked.

Thor shook his head. "Father banished her here without her memory to try and make sure that Ragnarok would never happen."

"Do you think she wants to bring the rag thing about now?" Tony asked. This really was almost too much, and, for Tony to think that, that just made it even worse.

"Ragnarok," Thor corrected softly. "I know not, Anthony."

"If you call me Anthony one more time I swear I'll steal all your pop tarts," Tony grumbled. "It's just Tony, Thor. Say it with me. To-ny," he said, sounding it out slowly like he was saying it for someone who didn't speak English.

"Tony, now would be a good time to focus," Steve reminded him. "Don't get cranky because Thor calls you by your full name." The Captain ran his fingers through his hair. "So, guess this means that we need to go out and find them."

"I'm sure that they'll show themselves soon enough," Banner said. "In non-end-of-the-world-y things, has anyone seen my jacket?"

OoOoOoOoOo  
A prank war seemed to take the appearance of psychological warfare, at least in the hands of Loki and Phoenix.

It started simply when things started to disappear around the Avengers headquarters. Bruce's jacket was only the first thing. It turned up three days later, but it had been dyed what Tony called 'pretty princess pink.'

The keys to Steve's motorcycle were next. At the time, everyone just called him an old man who was going senile. When he finally gave up and replaced them, those disappeared in less than an hour.

Then Tony's favorite car disappeared for three days before reappearing in four equal sawed apart pieces in four different parts of the city. Tony nearly had a stroke.

When the steering wheel of his _second_ favorite car was stolen, only to show up welded to the crotch of his Iron Man suit, along with 'Driving you nuts, yet?' scrawled on his wall, everyone suspected that Loki and Phoenix were up to no good, especially since none of the cameras caught anything during all of these occurrences.

Steve walked out of his bedroom with everything normal, but walked back in an hour later with all of his belongings and furniture glued to the ceiling in a perfect replica of how they were arranged normally, only upside down. Steve thought that he had lost his mind until Clint confirmed that everything was on the ceiling for him. Once again, nothing had been caught on the cameras around the headquarters.

The next stage of the 'prank war' was more extreme. Someone blew up Natasha's car while she was getting coffee, it went from suspicions to confirmation as to who was behind these 'pranks'. Only those two would think of an exploding car as a 'prank.'

What they didn't realize was that Loki had taught Phoenix to blow up the car by igniting the gasoline with her own abilities. No more homemade bombs with propane! No one could really figure out how or why the car had exploded, which just suggested all the more that the God of Mischief and his companion were behind it, along with the deaths of the three nearby civilians who had the misfortune of being nearby.

There had been a meeting and a lot of screaming from Fury after that incident, as he couldn't believe that Loki and Phoenix hadn't been seen doing any of these things when they were so obviously behind them. Plus, they had escalated from simple annoyances fairly quickly. Something had to be done.

Finding them became even more pertinent when Tony Stark disappeared from his bed one night. Not as in was snatched from it, but actually _vanished_ in the blink of an eye on the camera without any sort of warning.

When he woke up, the only thing he could figure out immediately was that he was in a basement. He had fallen asleep in his bed and never even felt himself being removed, and, since he hadn't been drinking that night, he doubted that he had blacked out.

The room was dark except for the arc reactor that glowed on his chest through the wife beater that he had been wearing when he fell asleep.

It stopped being so dark when a small fire appeared out of nowhere. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Tony could see that the fire was held in the palm of a woman's hand: Phoenix. She was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room.

"Nice of you to join the land of the living, Tony Stark," she remarked, sounding almost bored as she rolled the small flame out of the palm of her hand, not even looking up from it as it moved over the back of her hand and then up to her fingertips.

"Since when did you turn into a sentient candle?" he asked, fascinated despite himself. It was the same problem that he had with Loki. He wanted to know how they performed magic because his scientific mind wanted to know how things worked, usually by taking them apart and seeing how they fit back together. He had the feeling that Phoenix was more than a little 'apart' already, at least mentally. She had a frightening burning look in her eyes that she didn't before.

She bent back all of her fingers but her pointer finger, the fire now small like…well, a candle now. She chuckled wickedly, actually flicking the fire in his direction, still smiling as the fire singed a bit of his hair. "Since I became more aware of my place," she said to him.

She stood up, walking over to him like a predator stalking its prey, sitting on his lap and languidly slinging an arm around his shoulders. It was then that he realized that, unlike Loki, who's skin felt like ice, hers felt like fire. Tony couldn't help but realize that she and Loki really were opposites in a lot of ways. Loki was tall and angular while she was short and curvy. He **really** didn't need to be thinking about how nice it was to feel a pretty, curvy woman sitting in his lap. Bad Tony!

Tony let out a slightly nervous chuckle. "I don't remember you being anywhere _near_ this friendly," he said as he felt her fevered tips of her fingers trail slowly from the top of his forehead to the tip of his nose.

"Oh she's actually quite friendly." Tony would have jumped out of the chair if he weren't currently tied to it, and if someone wasn't sitting on his lap. A light flickered on and Tony blinked as he looked toward the doorway, seeing a smiling Loki standing by a light switch. "We both can be if we're in the right mood."

"And I've officially entered the Twilight Zone," Tony remarked as Phoenix started to stroke at the hair she had singed just minutes ago. "Why am I here? For that matter, where is here?"

"Twilight Zone, remember?" Phoenix cooed to him. "And you're here because I can't blow up cars every day to have fun."

As she started to hum the tune for the old show, her bringing up exploding Natasha's car reminded him just of who he was dealing with. "They're gonna find me, you know, and they're gonna be PISSED when they do."

"It is more fun to fight people when they are angry," Loki remarked, walking over and offering his hand to Phoenix, who slid her hand into his and allowed him to help her up off Tony's lap. He then lifted her up off her feet, carrying her away like a husband carrying his bride over the threshold of their home. "Now, I hope that you don't think us as rude hosts, but we do have to plan a bit for when your friends arrive."

As Loki carried her away, Phoenix looked at Tony over his shoulder and waved. "Goodnight Tony Stark!" she called out to him.

They left the light on for him as they left the room, although he heard the audible click of a lock sliding into place from the other side of the door. This night had turned into something weird, terrifying, and just a little bit hot.

Tony shook his head as that last thought crossed his mind. **Bad Tony!**

OoOoOoOoOo

As Loki carried Phoenix away from the basement and up toward their bedroom, he laughed as he felt her press her warm lips against the crook of his neck. "I think our guest might like you," he remarked.

"I think our guest might like _you_," she told him playfully. Oh they were going to have fun playing with Tony Stark while they waited for his friends to try and rescue him! "He is the type to flirt with danger, after all."

(Author's Note: I understand that Surtur is a villain in the Marvel comics universe, but this is fiction and I'm sticking more to the original Norse mythology. Other than obviously making Surtur female and tossed onto Midgard to prevent her predicted actions in Ragnarok. Plus, to give a hint into future chapters and at least one sequel, as I have one planned to even this, this series is about telling fate to get fucked and doing what you want. Fate is what you make, to quote Terminator 2. The myth of Surtur fit too perfectly, though, so I couldn't resist interweaving and the like.

And yes, Phoenix is acting a little unhinged in this chapter. Wouldn't you if you found out if you were supposed to help bring about Armageddon? Loki can act crazy at times, after all.

…I'm actually a little worried for Tony now. *laughs* Those two might do something extra evil, like turn him into a girl or something.)


	5. Chapter 5: Fraternizing with the Ene

Chapter Five: Fraternizing with the Enemy

(Author's Note: Everyone thank vsama for the first part of this chapter. Her review gave me an idea!)

Tony dozed off while still tied to his chair at some point, and, when he woke up, there was a cat in his lap. A black cat with white feet and it was just sleeping on him as if it owned him. However, Tony could do little more than glare down at it. "If you're one of them in some different form then I'm going to be pissed," he grumbled, waking up the cat enough to have it look up at him.

"Hurt his feelings and I'll set you on fire." He didn't realize that he wasn't alone in the room. He jolted, turning to look behind his back as much as he could and seeing Phoenix standing there. She walked around him, reaching down and picking up the cat, cradling the ball of fur in her arms like it was a child. He couldn't help but think she looked a little bit like a Bond villain holding a cat and stroking its head as she was.

"This...is Socks, and you will be polite and courteous to him," she told him. Tony couldn't help but realize that this chick was coming off as more just batshit crazy than before, and she had been pretty crazy before. He just assumed that Loki's own brand of insanity had started rubbing off on her. "If you're not...," she reached down with her non cat holding hand and grabbed his hair, tugging his head back roughly exposing his throat, "I'll snap your spine. Clear?"

"Crystal." Cat ladies were supposed to be crazy, but this was ridiculous. With a smile that almost looked sincere, she let go of his hair, stroking his hair for a moment as if that would make up for the threat and hair grabbing.

She let the cat jump from her arms, walking back behind him where he couldn't comfortably watch her, which just made him even more nervous. He felt her nails lightly drag against the back of his neck and, despite himself, he shivered from the contact. What the hell was wrong with him that he kinda got off from crazy?

"Are you hungry?" she asked him. It actually took him a second really to translate what she had asked in his head. Fingers and nails trailing over his skin had him distracted!

"Ah, yeah...I guess I could eat," Tony said, craning his neck to try and keep some sort of eye on her. "What, are you gonna hand feed me here or something?"

"As fun as that sounds," he felt something cold and sharp against his wrists and felt the ropes fall away, "I think you can handle that yourself." The ropes were cut away from his legs as well, and he started moving around to stretch his arms and legs out.

As he stood, he turned around to see Phoenix holding a rather large knife in her hand, so now was not the time to try and make an escape attempt. He really just needed to stay put until his friends showed up.

After giving him a few moments for him to get the right feelings back in his limbs, Tony felt her hand close around his shoulder. "Sorry that we didn't think to pack you any clothes, but you can dine in your pajamas," she said, pushing him lightly toward the door. "We'll get you clothes later."

She led him out the door to the basement and up a flight of stairs, taking him into a large kitchen and pushing him down into a chair at a dining table. When he felt fur brush against his legs, he realized that the cat had followed as well.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tony asked, eyes staying on her as she moved about the kitchen. "You're being almost...nice for a hostage keeper."

"We'd still much rather you lot on your knees than in pain or dead, Stark." DAMN these people were silent when they moved around. Tony hadn't even realized that Loki was behind him until he spoke. He hated that they were able to scare the hell out of him like that.

He also hated that what he just said sounded like a come on.

Insanity really shouldn't be hot. It's not fair.

Tony watched as Phoenix pulled an iPod out of the pocket of her indecently small denim cut off shorts and plugged the earbuds into her ears, turning it on and starting to bob around as she moved about the kitchen, just moving her head at first as she started to pull out cooking implements. He wouldn't think that he'd ever be watching what was apparently a god sway her hips along to music as she got ready to cook breakfast, but sometimes his life was weird.

"She's actually a pretty good cook," Loki said beside him. "Her feelings get hurt if you don't eat, though, so I would suggest having your fill."

Tony looked on as she opened the fridge and bent over, looking at its contents as she rolled her hips back and forth, seemingly forgetting that there were other people in the room as she started to move more with whatever music was playing in her ears.

"Didn't realize that gods knew how to cook," Tony ended up musing out loud, more than a little mesmerized by the dancing brunette than caring what she was cooking.

When she started cracking eggs in a bowl to work toward scrambling them, Tony tore his eyes away from her to see that Loki was staring even more intensely than he had been. There wasn't just lust in his eyes, either. There was...nah! Neither of these two were capable of anything more than base emotions, like anger, fear...

"Keep looking at my Queen like that I'm going to stop being so...hospitable." Tony hadn't even realized that Loki had seen ANYTHING he had been doing; much less was cognizant enough to comment on it.

Tony snorted. "You two are the King and Queen of mixed signals," he grumbled, head dropping back.

"Soon we'll be rulers of a lot more than that," Loki said, still not looking away from Phoenix as she moved in the kitchen.

"Are you really still hung up on the ruling the world shtick?" Tony asked, sitting up to look at Loki. "Come on, man. You shouldn't do repeats on ideas."

"Who said the same idea was being used?" Loki asked him. "It was a mistake to try using some else's army. Best to depend on those that you can trust."

"And you think you can trust her?" Tony asked in an attempt to put any sort of seed of doubt in Loki's head.

That elicited a chuckle from the god. "I trust her far more than any of you lot seem to trust each other, or the agency that you work for."

Tony moved back slightly from him, looking at him confused. "I don't work for S.H.I.E.L.D.," he snapped. "It's like, an independent contractor thing at best."

"Sure it is. That's why their new headquarters is being located in your building." Damn, Loki kind of did have him there. He hadn't even realized that he had known that. Then again, he had managed to get into the building without anyone noticing and kidnap him, so why WOULDN'T he know everything? "I am amazed that you trust them after the whole 'we're actually making weapons' incident."

Tony bit back a shudder when Loki turned that piercing gaze directly on him. "That's one thing about me, Stark. When have I ever lied about my intentions here?" Loki's face broke into a grin. "Things will work a lot better for you and the rest if you'd just stop fighting so hard."

"Because I'm **human**," Tony snapped, sighing and rubbing his eyes. "That's the thing about us as a species. We're fight to the end. Fight you on the beaches, landing grounds, fields, all that jazz," he said. "If you don't get that, then you don't know humanity nearly as well as you think you do."

OoOoOoOoOo

Phoenix, despite the earbuds in her ears, could actually hear everything that was being said behind her. She had been trained as a spy by S.H.I.E.L.D. She knew exactly how to appear not to be paying attention to anything around her when she really was.

She had to admit that, out of all of the _Avengers_ (and she can't think of that name without a mental eye roll), Tony Stark was actually almost fun to be around. Most of the others were far too serious for some reason or another, but he was witty. If they couldn't convert him, maybe they could keep him in a pretty cage.

When Tony gave his little speech about humanity, she turned from the stove. She had actually finished cooking the eggs while they were talking/arguing. Spreading them out onto plates, she walked over, almost looking like an odd parody of a 1950's TV housewife as she walked over, placing the plates in front of them with silverware. "Now boys, it's not polite to argue politics at the table," she said with a slightly demented smirk, knowing just how ridiculous that sounded.

Both of them seemed to accept that, almost begrudgingly starting to pick at the eggs. When Tony realized that they were actually quite good, he started to eat them more.

"Apparently a god can cook well," Tony muttered under his breath.

"Some things even the God of Mischief doesn't joke about," Loki told him with a grin.

Phoenix turned away before either of them could see the pleased smirk that crossed her face. Sometimes it was fun to show people that assumptions were wrong, even over something petty like that. Might get them to reconsider other things...

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Fury had torn into all of them even worse than normal when it came out that SOMEHOW, Tony Stark had disappeared from his bed. Actually, there was a very large dent in the wall of Tony's kitchen because Fury had punched it in frustration. When the terrifying one-eyed man actually breaks enough to attack inanimate objects, it's time to flee, even when you're a bunch of superheroes.

Natasha had assumed that she would be the first one back, but Bruce was sitting at the kitchen table, eyes purposefully not looking at the fist sized mark in the wall.

"So, Fury's pissed," Bruce said, eyes studying the Russian over his glasses as she walked up to the kitchen table, sitting down across from him.

"Can you blame him?" she asked. "Tony vanished into thin air out of his bed and we can't explain how that happened."

Bruce let out a soft snort. "We may not be able to explain it, but we know who did it, so maybe we should focus less on the how and more on the how to get him back."

Even though she knew that he was right, Natasha had a hard time not feeling a bit like a failure. Somehow, Tony had been snatched from his own bed and none of them had heard or seen _anything_. It was not one of their finest hours.

"Hard to turn off that voice in my head saying that I'm a fuck up right now," she admitted. Her hand reached for the salt shaker, twirling it around on the table with her fingers slowly.

"Everyone's kind of feeling that," Bruce pointed out. "I think I'm starting to figure out a way to trace Loki's magic, though, based on the residue left behind from when he took Tony. It might take a little while, but if I can make it work, we can find them and hopefully where they're keeping Tony."

"You think Tony will last long enough for us to figure out how to do all that?" she asked him.

"I've got faith in Tony. He's a survivor," Bruce said with a slight smile.

(Another Author Note: The song Phoenix is listening to is Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna. Not that it says anything about THEIR relationship, but their relationship right now is intense enough to burn and take the world with it. Let's hope someone possibly talks some sense into them. Or let them rule the world. I'd be happy with either.)


	6. Chapter 6: Scepter Time

Chapter Six: Scepter Time

They actually hadn't woken Tony up until afternoon, and, after the food, Phoenix could tell that he had been expecting to just be shoved back into the basement and tied back up, but there were other plans for the genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist. After the kitchen was cleared up, Loki had wandered off to do errands while she led Tony through the large home that they had acquired and up the stairs, keeping her hand on his shoulder as she pushed him into a bedroom.

She watched him as he studied the room. "Figured that you would be more comfortable in a bedroom than something like basement. You're a guest, after all."

"Guests can leave of their own free will," Tony argued, even as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

She shrugged. "Hopefully you'll change your mind on that soon."

Tony scratched the back of his neck. "I don't get you two. Why do you think that just being somewhat nice to me isn't going to change my mind that you're a couple of loons?"

She leaned against his door frame, blocking his only escape. When she tilted her head at him, he happened to notice the gold makeup around her eyes, noticing how much the color makes her blue eyes pop. He can't help but remember back when S.H.I.E.L.D. was watching him from afar and she did it on occasion, and he remembered her being much more no nonsense in her looks and demeanor. If it weren't for the crazy now rolling off her along with the need to help take over the world, Tony would honestly say that Loki made the woman come out of her shell and that it was good for her.

"You should take a picture. It would last longer," she said, snapping him out of his minor trance.

"Just can't help but notice that you look a lot different from the days that S.H.I.E.L.D. used to make you follow me around," Tony tells her. He can even see that her body language is a lot looser and more comfortable.

A lazy smirk spreads across her face. "It helps to find where you truly belong in life. Makes a gal feel better." Tony can't help but notice more and more that, even though she wears regular clothes more often than Thor and Loki, who seem to prefer sticking to their own garb, that she really does look more like them she does a human. She has the smooth, unblemished skin that they do and ethereal good looks. Her eyes blaze while Loki has the ice cold stare, though.

"Yeah, but did you have to burn my art work last time?" he asked her. "I didn't even have that stuff insured yet."

The look on her face almost registers as concern. "Was it irreplaceable?" she asked.

"Yes!" he snapped. He didn't know why he was focusing on this, other than it's easier to argue with her rather than just stare at her and get distracted again.

"Good!" She grinned again, her smile showing now that similar off kilterness that Loki's did. "Had fun doing it, too!" She moved out of the way of the doorframe, slamming the door and, before he can react, he can hear the audible click of it locking. The windows have bars on them and there's absolutely nothing metal or mechanical in the room, not even a clock. She likely knew how he originally escaped the last time he was held hostage. It seemed that she didn't want any repeats.

OoOoOoOoOo

It was almost weird that she kept catching Tony Stark staring at her or Loki. She wondered why he kept staring. It was almost disconcerting, even if it was fun to tease him about it.

Brushing it aside, she bent down to sweep up Socks, who had been following her around, in her arms but, as she moved over, her head started to spin and her stomach lurched. Sitting back up, she leaned against the wall for a moment, trying to get her bearings. In her long life, she had never felt sick that was not directly due to bad food or drinking far too much.

She thought that she had control of it but, as she moved again, her stomach spun and she bolted for her own room that had the adjoining bath, pushing the bathroom door open and hitting the floor, managing to get her over the toilet and letting her stomach empty its contents.

It felt like forever, but she finally stopped, shuddering as she flushed the toilet and slowly pushed herself off the floor. She managed to get across the bathroom and bedroom floor so that she could lay down on the bed, flopping down and curling up on the bed.

She felt Socks jump on the bed and, while she usually shooed the cat off furniture, she did not have the energy to do so. She must have eaten something bad. That had to be it. She reached up and stroked the cat's head when he nestled in her hair, making his own nest out of it.

She had been lightly dozing for over an hour when she heard footsteps outside of her door. She only opened her eyes when the door opened, letting them shut again when she saw that it was only Loki. Nothing was on fire or anything, so she could only assume that Tony had not escaped nor had anyone shown up to fetch him.

She felt the bed sink slightly as Loki said down on the edge, stroking her hair. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," she said, even though she still felt like her head was swimming. "Some sort of food just didn't agree with me." She felt Socks being removed from her hair, and, despite the cat's yowls, Loki set him on the floor. She was able to see him better when Loki brushed the sweat coated hair out of her face.

"You look...green," he said, and, if she felt better, she would hit him with a pillow because of the grin on his face.

"You'd know green, wouldn't you?" she grumbled.

"Perhaps I should go check on our houseguest," Loki said, leaning forward and pressing his lips against her forehead.

"I'll be out in a bit," she said, slowly pushing herself up, not wanting to think of the wildness that Socks had likely turned her hair into. "Let me just get a shower."

"No hurry," he said as he stood up from the bed. "I wouldn't want you to make yourself sick again."

"No, that would be bad," she said to him as she slowly got up and moved back toward the bathroom.

OoOoOoOo

Tony had been alone in the room for over an hour (and had frustratingly not been able to find a way out of it), when he heard a light knocking on the door. He then heard a key turning in the lock and, not shockingly, Loki was on the other side, carrying a duffle bag. "I thought that you might have gotten tired of sitting around in your pajamas," he said, tossing the bag on the bed.

Tony took the bag and opened it, realizing that somehow, Loki had gotten _his_ clothes for him. "How the hell did you get my clothes?" he asked.

"How do you think?" Loki asked with a smirk.

"Alright, fine, don't answer me," Tony said with a wave of his hand, starting to grab some clothes out of the bag. When he looked closer at the bag, he even realized that it was HIS bag. Part of him really didn't want to know how Loki had gotten into his home and packed him a bag of his own things, even if, strictly for security reasons (and just plain curiosity), he HAD to know.

"I'm not sure someone even as smart as you wouldn't get it if I tried to explain," Loki told him. "To my understanding, you don't even really care for magic."

"I don't, which is why I'm freaked out that you can apparently get in and out of my tower at your leisure," Tony griped. "Hell, I could LOVE magic and still be wigged that you can do something like that."

"If you understood more about magic I could possibly explain it to you," Loki said to him in a light tone that was just irritating the piss out of him right now.

"Fine, explain it to me after I change clothes," Tony said. When Loki arched an eyebrow at him quizzically, Tony shrugged. "What the hell else am I doing here? You people didn't even kidnap me to make weapons like people normally do. Hell, I'm pretty sure you did it just to annoy me."

"And it took you this long to figure that out," Loki mused, smirking. "I can get a hold of things that you can't even dream of with destructive power. Why would I need anything from you?"

"GOD I'm looking forward to when everyone else finds this place," Tony grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "The two of you freak me the hell out most of the time."

"And I take it the rest of the time you just like to look at us," Loki said, smiling as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe. "Now if you want a lesson in magic that you might be able to understand, I suggest you go change clothes." He motioned his hands toward the bathroom. "Before I change my mind."

Despite wanting to hurl something at the god's head, Tony instead grabbed his clothes and headed off into the bathroom. Even if Loki aggravated the hell out of him, he still wanted to have an inkling as to how to he magically popped here and there.

OoOoOoOoOo

The next day, Phoenix had mostly forgotten about the deal of being sick the day before. She just assumed that the eggs she had made for herself had been a little off or something. She had dropped Socks off at a vet, as the cat needed some shots of some sort, saying that she would pick him up the next day.

For some reason or another, she was feeling a little on edge and wanted to make sure that the cat was out of the home. She could simply blame it on the sickness that she had felt still kind of sticking in the back of her mind. She almost thought that maybe one of those stupid Avengers had found a way to make her ill.

She had only been home for a little bit when she heard an explosion from the side of the house. Most certainly not good. She started to head that way while running, but another explosion knocked her off her feet. She could feel heat around her, something was burning. She was shaking plaster out of her hair when she realized that she had actually been blasted through a wall.

She could swear that she could hear a plane outside. She had first thought that possibly Tony Stark had found some way to blow himself out of his room, but the plane meant that the rest of his friends had found a way to trace them.

Pushing herself off the ground (and quite glad that she had taken Socks out of the house), she looked into her main priority, which was finding Loki.

She found them up in the room they had stashed Tony in. There was actually a large hole in the side, letting the sun in. Loki was up and looking pissed, but it seemed that the Avengers had not taken too much care about where they had aimed their blasts, as Tony was out cold.

Phoenix snorted. "We treated him better than that," she said, making herself bite back a laugh as this was a serious situation. She picked up Tony by his arm and hefted him over her shoulder. "So, what should we do?" she asked Loki.

"Right now I'm just angry that they blew a hole in the side of the house," he said. "I liked this place."

"So did I," she said, looking around. "Get your scepter."


	7. Chapter 7 Who Would We Play With

Chapter Seven: Who Would We Play With if They Were Dead? 

When Loki went off to get his scepter, he returned with another weapon as well, coming in with a longsword, actually longer than she was tall, and handed it to her, hilt first. "I told you that I'd get you a weapon, although I think this suits you a little better than a scepter."

When she took it and held it up, still holding Tony Stark over her shoulder, she watched as her regular clothing shimmered, turning instead in to her armor. "Now I know I didn't do that," she said.

Something I had added to it," he said to her with a smile. The house jolted again, although this time it was not from an explosion but someone literally HITTING it. That would be their friendly neighborhood Hulk, most likely. She was almost knocked off her feet with the added bulk, but managed to stay up.

"I am going to go and use this on someone's neck," Phoenix grumbled once she had her footing. She turned, running out of the room and heading down what remained of the stairway, walking outside.

The little quinjet that they were using had landed, and it seemed that everyone had tagged along for this again. "You know, you could have just knocked," she called out to them.

Rogers's eyes narrowed in on the unconscious man on her shoulder. "What did you do to him?"

"What did I do?" she asked, giving him a surprised look. "I've fed him and taken care of you. You blew a hole in the side of my home and managed to knock him out at the same time." She grinned as she looked them over. "Him being unconscious is squarely on your shoulders." She chuckled. "We'll, metaphorically, obviously."

Phoenix could almost picture tumbleweed blowing by while all of them stared at her, and then Loki as well when she felt him come out behind her. "Are we going to do this? I'm already bored."

"You could just hand him over and make this easy," Rogers offered.

"Oh captain, my captain, now where would the fun in that be?" Loki asked. He was holding his scepter in one hand, and she could feel his other hand resting on the small of her back.

She shrugged. "You heard him. You want him, come and get him." She lifted up the sword, only to point it menacingly, only to have a trail of fire travel from her hand down the sword and shoot out at Romanov, although she moved out of the way before it could hit her, rolling in the grass.

She bolted inside back into the house, Loki following her. "Did you do that?" she asked, wondering if maybe it was some other trick added to the sword like with her armor.

Loki shook his head. "That is all you," he told her.

"Huh," was all she said before heading down to the basement, dropping Tony on the floor, although she was at least nice enough to make sure not to drop him on his thick head. When he started to stir, she nudged him hard in the back with her foot, but it was not quite a kick. "Wake up," she grumbled. "Your friends are blowing up my house. They nearly blew you up with it."

"Had to be Natasha then," Tony said with a groan, pushing himself into a sitting position. "Clint's whole shtick is that he has perfect aim."

"At least you can say that I didn't blow you up," she told him with a roll of her eyes.

"No you just kidnapped me out of my bed," Tony snapped at her. "And I'm STILL not sure why."

He actually pushed himself back slightly when she narrowed her eyes at him. Her glare was fiery while Loki's was ice cold, but no less terrifying. "You people nearly ruined my life when Loki got sent back to Asgard. The fact that you only ended up here and not at the bottom of the ocean? You should be thankful!"

He managed to push himself off the ground as she pointed her sword at him. He knew that she was more than old enough to have used a sword back when they were new technology, so he had no doubt that she could slice him in half right now, especially since he did not have the suit with him. "And I am tired of this lack of gratitude! Maybe I should show you just how ungracious I can be!"

She raised the sword, intending on slicing him in half, not realizing the fact that the sword was aflame again. Tony noticed, though. He also noticed that her eyes had turned yellow and that her skin was starting to darken. As she stalked toward him, it darkened to being as black as pitch, like it was burnt to a crisp, even as it stayed smooth. Thor had said that she was a fire giant, and Tony had not still completely believed him, until he saw her changing and even _growing_ in front of his eyes. He had noticed that she was short, as Loki was literally head and shoulders taller than she was, but as she moved, she was growing tall enough at least to be able to look Thor in the eyes now.

As she moved the sword back to strike him, she caught her own reflection in it, arching an eyebrow at it and then Tony realized that she had not even realized that she had changed. "I am getting really tired of these surprises," he heard her say under her breath before she turned her attention back onto him. "Actually, I think I will save you for last." Lightening fast, she raised her other arm, backhanding him hard enough to send him flying into the wall. He had not even felt the crack of the wall, as darkness descended onto him as soon as his head hit the wall.

OoOoOoOo

While Phoenix had headed to the basement, Loki had actually made the effort to lead them away from her. He had figured out why she was sick lately, and he did not want the other Avengers anywhere near her, even if she managed to manifest new abilities all the time. Once fully awakened, he had not realized just how much she would be able to do. He knew that she would be able to wield a flaming sword, but it seemed that any sword would turn to flames in her hands. He figured that could be nothing but a good thing right now, though.

He knew that Captain Rogers was following him as he ran through the house, and likely one or two others. He also knew that the large green giant that Banner turned into was around somewhere. He could hear the thing stomping about, but he could not quite pinpoint its location, which had him worried. At least he knew that Phoenix could take care of herself well. That was the only thing saving his already rattled nerves.

He heard the Captain's shield behind him, ducking in just enough time to feel it slice through the air just above his head. When the shield landed, he started running again, hoping to lead the others far enough away before attacking. What he was going to do was likely to get messy.

OoOoOoOo

"Brother? Where are you hiding Anthony?" Thor called out. He understood that he was likely the only one here that did not want to hurt either his brother or his woman. He despised the idea of hurting family, no matter what they had done. He hoped that, once both of their rages had subsided, maybe they could be brought back from the brink.

Thor was more here right now to retrieve Iron Man rather than worry about what sort of mischief his brother was up to. He knew that he should be concerned with bringing his brother back to Asgard, but he knew that Loki did not want to be there, and also understood that he may better behave here with the Phoenix, especially when they both realized their joyous news. People called Thor dumb, but there were things that were obvious to him that were not to others. He was sure that, once both of them had time to cool down, they would stop their rampaging.

He turned, thinking that maybe the basement would be a good place to hide Anthony, when suddenly the floor collapsed below him and the basement came to him. When he looked around, he realized why the floor had collapsed. Parts of the room were now on fire and the floor had been weakened. Shaking himself and standing, he realized that both Phoenix and Anthony were down there as well, and the woman had transformed into her other form. The only thing protecting the unconscious Iron Man in her arms from her now too hot for human contact skin was the likely enchanted armor.

"Come to fight me?" she asked, turning more toward him and he could see her yellow eyes.

"I only come for my team member," Thor replied. "You and my brother may leave as far as I am concerned."

Her eyes narrowed at him. "The mighty Thor, is he turning down a battle?" She laughed. "If this is a trick, may I remind you that Loki is the one who is known for his tricks, not you?"

Thor shook his head. "I cannot hurt that which belongs to my brother. He had been hurt enough."

She seemed to consider that for a moment before walking up to him, dumping Anthony in his arms. "Not sure if the rest of your team will understand this."

"If you find my brother and get him away, I will take care of the rest," Thor said to her.

She nodded before bolting past him and running up the stairs of the basement. At least it seemed that his brother's wife could occasionally be reasoned with. Maybe she would be a good influence on him yet, despite her own origins.

OoOoOoOo

Phoenix truly had no idea what Thor was thinking, but she was not about to pass up the opportunity to get away. By the looks of the flaming basement, she was barely able to control her abilities. She had actually picked Tony up simply because, as mad as she had been, she had rather him not catch on fire just the same. Whom would they play with if they died?

She passed by a mirror during her run, taking a brief moment to look at herself in the mirror. She was not sure what to think of this look yet. She shut her eyes and concentrated, not ready for Loki to see her this way, although he likely knew what she would look like in this form. When she opened them, she had shifted back to normal. In a split second, she moved to the left, just narrowly missing the arrow that had been aimed at her head, it shattering the glass that she had been looking in.

She crouched and looked around, considering where the direction the arrow had come from. Barton was perched up somewhere. "I truly hate snipers, you know that, Barton?" she called out to him. "I don't like anyone not brave enough to come down and face me like a real man!"

She spun and missed another arrow, this one hitting into the wall with a sickening 'thunk' that would have been her shoulder if she had not moved. "Now come on. Do you not think I already know all your moves? I knew all of those even before you had your little _awakening_. We trained together, remember? We were partners in arms at one point, although working for a military organization I discovered really wasn't my style."

She flipped backward and the third arrow missed her, this one causing a minor explosion after it hit the wall. Apparently, he had not liked her reminding him that they had once worked together, or that he had been changed by Loki for a while.

She smiled, looking up toward the top of the stairwell and pointing her sword, fire shooting out at the perch that Barton had found. She watched as the shadows lit up, Barton ducking and rolling out of the way as the spot he formerly occupied was covered in flames.

"Partners in arms who remember their training," she told him grimly, moving swiftly up the stairs and staring him down. "You're just lucky that I have more important matters to attend to." She snatched the bow out of his hand and threw it behind her before running. She was trying to be nice. She was trying simply to grab Loki and leave.

When she found him, he was trading blows with Rogers. Not thinking for a moment, she simply screamed, "Rogers!" When he turned toward her, Loki sent a blast from his scepter, knocking the garish flag man back into the wall.

She ran up to Loki. He had some blood running from his bottom lip where it had been split, but he seemed otherwise OK, although she had seen him moving a little stiffly. "We need to go," she said to him. They were outnumbered and she still felt...off in a way that she could not figure out.

He nodded, saying, "Till next time, Mr. America," then grabbing her by the waist and, before she could think or even breathe, she felt something like a whooshing around her, and they were gone.

OoOoOoOo

Steve Rogers had been just pushing himself up off the ground when he heard Loki speak. The correct of "Captain America," had been on his lips but, as he sat up, he could see the both of them vanishing without a trace.

Before he could say anything else, though, he felt the house move again. Hulk/Banner had been ripping it apart, trying to get inside and working his way toward them. He watched as the wall to the outside had been ripped away, the big green guy standing on the other side.

He sniffed the air, as if searching for something. "Gods gone," he grunted out.

Rogers nodded. "Yeah, big guy. Gods gone." And he had no idea where.

Fury was going to be _pissed_.

Before he could ruminate on that, he saw Thor appear in the doorway, holding an unconscious Tony. "Is he alright?" Steve asked, moving closer to look at him.

"Anthony will live to fight another day, Captain," Thor said, looking around. "Are my brother and his wife gone?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, they did the vanishing thing. Where's Natasha and Clint?"

"I believe looking for his bow." Thor could not seem quite to hold back a smirk. "It seems that Phoenix threw it through a window to distract him."

"Did she hurt anyone?" Steve asked. Just to toss away a man's weapon seemed almost...trivial considering.

Thor shook his head. "No, we made a deal. She would trade Anthony and they would leave."

"Yeah, you made a deal," Steve grumbled, pushing back his cowl to run his fingers through his hair. "I get that he's your brother and she's...your sister-in-law or whatever, but we really can't let them run off."

"I doubt that we will find them now, anyway," Thor said. "I will tell you why later I let them go. It is not just familial affection this time."

"Please enlighten me," Steve told him. "You get to be the one to enlighten Fury as well. I'm not covering for your deals with your family."

"Fair enough," Thor replied.

OoOoOoOo

They actually hadn't gone far, Loki and Phoenix. Loki knew better than to think that she would go anywhere without her cat and, after getting it from the vet a little earlier than expected (and getting a few strange looks), they fled in a more mundane way: in a stolen car.

Even though she had insisted on driving (she was not completely convinced that Loki knew how), she had had to pull over several more times to be sick. It was the third time and they had already crossed two state lines when she seems to give up, leaning against the car door after she was done and simply trying to relax.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she asked. Loki brushed his fingers against the back of her neck and she silently moved against them.

"Do you really not know?" he asked her.

When she looked back to ask what he meant, he watches as first confusion and then recognition crossed her face when she realized what was going on. "Wow can you tell so soon?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "Sixth Sense," he retorted, trying to make her laugh by using some random Midgardian phrase.

That did elicited a slight smile out of her, although, when she started laughing, it was now his turn to be confused.

When she caught his look, she explained. "Seems like an Asgard thing," she remarked. "I'm pretty sure Thor knew, too. That's why he wouldn't fight with me."

"It seems that my bro..._Thor_ is not so thick headed all the time," Loki said, correcting himself again.

"You are adopted, not abandoned." If anyone else had said that to him, he would be angry, but instead he just wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, sighing against the back of her neck. It was hard to argue with someone that, despite the short time they had been together, seemed to understand him inside and out. He still thought of Thor as his brother and Frigga as his mother. He still even occasionally thinks of Odin as his father, although he still had many issues with the man. More so than even Thor. He cannot help but be slightly more courteous to his brother in his thoughts if he really refused to fight her as she said.

"Those are old wounds that are still healing," he admitted simply.

"Better off than mine," she remarked, and he realized that she was right. He had at least been taken in, while she had been left on this world with no possible memory of what she was or what she could do to prevent something that _might_ happen. They really did almost have too much in common. "We need to find somewhere to spend the night soon...and probably a new car."

"We will get a hotel room tonight and then worry about the rest tomorrow," he told her, smoothing down her hair.

(Author's Note: So they intended revenge, but then more important matters distracted them! Some things really are more important, after all.

Thank you for all of the alerts, favorites, and reviews! The epilogue should be up shortly, and then I shall be moving on to the third story involving them, 'Redemption.' Hope to see you readers soon!)


	8. Epilogue

Epilogue: 

_Three Months Later_

No one had heard from Loki or Phoenix in three months. Not one peep. Everyone else was concerned that the two of them may be working on something bad again. Everyone but Thor, who acted completely unconcerned about his brother. Everyone thought that was kind of unlike him, but, when prodded, he would only say that his brother would come out in his own time.

No one expected for Loki to simply pop up in Stark Tower while the Avengers were having breakfast.

It had been a long night before, and everyone gathered around the table for a late breakfast. Doom had set out a bunch of bots on the city, and it felt like it had taken forever to destroy all of them. Everyone had slept in late, and a large tower of food of every sort (including Pop Tarts for Thor) had been put together for them by Pepper, who seemed content to sit back and watch them eat for now rather than join in.

So no one had been expected for Loki to poof in front of the table, a good distance away from all of them.

Natasha and Clint had dropped to the floor, both crouching for a prepared attack. Tony had tensed up, ready to bolt for the suit room. Banner's eyes were already flashing green. Only Steve, who was tense and wary but hadn't run for any weapon yet, and Thor, who just looked stupidly happy to see his brother, hadn't made a move to arm themselves.

"My dear Avengers, you can relax," Loki said, holding up his hands to show that he was unarmed, but everyone knew that he had a tendency to literally pull a weapon out of his ass if he so desired. "I promise that I come here in peace."

"I wasn't aware you knew the meaning of the word," Banner said, fingers actually starting to dig into the table.

"Brother!" Thor exclaimed, jumping from his seat and running to the god of mischief. For once, Loki did not hiss at him for calling him by a familial term or push him away. This was incredibly odd. "How are you this morning?"

"Well," Loki said, only stumbling slightly when Thor slammed his hand down on Loki's shoulder. "Do get your friends to calm down. I really mean them no harm this time."

"They do not know the joyous news yet, Loki." Thor was also noticing that his brother wasn't pulling away or yelling at him like usual. He had been right in that, once the anger had subsided, his wife seemed to help him settle. "I did not think it was my place to tell any of them."

Loki's face lit up with a smile that, for once, wasn't insane or terrifying but...happy. Despite the murderous villain in the house, everyone could feel themselves start to relax slightly. While no one shared his enthusiasm to see his brother, the fact that he wasn't running for his hammer (and obviously blocking Loki from the others as well with his bulk) seemed to help settle everyone.

"Thank you for leaving it to me then," Loki said with a slight bow.

"Have we entered a parallel dimension where Loki acts almost normal and doesn't try to attack us on sight?" Clint asked, being the first to straighten up from the floor.

"Why no, dear Hawk," Loki explained. "My wife and I are expecting!"

"What, a delivery of uranium?" Tony asked before catching the very Earth turn of phrase. "Oh dear lord, evil has reproduced!"

"Are we supposed to throw a shower or something?" Natasha asked, pulling up from her croutch as well. Even Banner's eyes had turned back to their natural shade, as Loki really didn't seem to be here to cause any harm.

"If you are really so interested, I would not turn one down." No one had even realized that Phoenix was in the place, but there she was, walking down toward the breakfast table from the hallway she had concealed herself in. She was dressed much more simply than Loki, wearing a flowing short sleeved white top and a loose black skirt that went to her knees. The slightly protruding belly entered the room slightly before she did.

"This is more of a request for a truce," Loki continued. "I have no interest in trying to raise a child while on the run and I promise that we would both behave ourselves if you agreed to it."

"Why the hell should we agree to anything like that?" Tony snapped. "What the fuck does your word mean to anyone?" Tony could see that he was pushing his luck with Thor, as he saw the giant of a man tense, but this was completely insane!

"Come on, Tony. Do not be rude. I was perfectly nice to you when you were a houseguest," Phoenix said to him with a smile. "I'm not even asking to stay in the same building."

"You've threatened my life multiple times!" Tony snapped at her. "You threatened to hurt me if I made your cat sad!" He was practically jumping up and down now. He didn't know why this was making him so mad, except for the utter ridiculousness of it.

"You were rude to my cat, too!" she retorted, nostrils flaring. "And you're still here in one piece! Does that mean nothing?"

"Why am I not surprised that he was rude to a cat?" Pepper asked, honestly trying not to laugh at the whole situation.

"Tony, can we not anger the hormone addled god at the moment?" Clint asked when he noticed the flames starting to appear at her fingertips.

Of all the people to show calm in this situation, it was Loki. He placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning over and saying "Darling, your hands," in her ear.

She looked down at her hands and noticed the small flames, balling them into fists. "I apologize for that," she said after taking a deep breath. "My emotions are...volatile right now."

Natasha laughed softly. "She's even starting to talk like him," she said softly to Clint. "Guess they really are a couple."

Phoenix glared daggers at them for a moment before clearing her throat loudly, wanting to get back to the matter at hand. "Whether you trust us or not," she shot a direct look at Tony when she said that, "we are here to announce that, at least for the time being, no more active attempts to take over the world." She almost sounded huffy over that. "I have no interest in trying to raise a child while constantly on the run, either."

"So, what do we get if we agree to a truce then?" Steve asked ever the practical one.

"Beyond two less people to worry about?" Loki asked. "We'll help you when you need it as well."

"Are you asking to _join_ us?" Banner himself was pretty sure that he was still dreaming. This was exactly the LAST thing he expected to happen, and it wasn't even noon yet.

"Independent contractor," Phoenix said, looking pointedly at Tony. "You need extra help, just call." She sighed. "I can't do much right now, or for the next five or six months, but he can help you lots with your...adventures, and I cannot set you on fire!"

"Gotta talk it out with Fury first," Steve said under his breath, even as Thor beamed at the idea of him and Loki POSSIBLY being on the same side again. "Anyone got any objections?"

"I have lots!" Tony shouted, although no one paid him much mind. Everyone else seemed to think that they could play nice as long as they weren't actively trying to kill anyone. "This is probably a trick! That might be a pillow under her shirt for all we know!" Tony reached over to touch her stomach, and, faster than human eyes could keep up with, Phoenix had lashed out with her fist, hitting Tony in the chest and sending him flying. She had taken enough care not to hit him in his arc reactor, but otherwise had held little back.

"What?" she asked when everyone stared back at her after Tony flew across the room. "He didn't have permission to touch me," she explained.

"Please refrain from touching my wife and the mother of my child unless she gives permission, Stark," Loki said, barely able to hide his own amusement.

"Have you been properly married yet?" Thor asked yet. "Have you called in a monk from Asgard?"

Loki shook his head. "Not yet. She is not really in the proper way to travel right now. This was taxing enough. If we could get one to come here then we would, though." It seemed to him to just be a matter of paperwork, as some would say, although he wasn't as tradition minded as Thor.

As the two brothers kept talking, Phoenix walked over and offered her hand to help Tony up. He glared at her for a moment, but then accepted the help. "Sorry for that," she apologized. "Still, any human should know not to randomly try and grab a pregnant woman's stomach."

"I'll keep that in mind," Tony grumbled, not wanting to admit that he saw the logic in the statement.


End file.
